This week’s book is Days Missing: Kestus #4. In my opinion, this is an awesome book with an awesome concept, yet no one seems to be reading this! If you listened to last month’s podcast you may have heard me talking about Days Missing, but here is a brief rundown for those who did not.
The first series, simply titled Days Missing, is about a man simply called the Steward who has been around since the dawn of time observing mankind. He has the ability to fold time back on itself, but he can only fold time back a maximum of 24 hours and never able to fold the same 24 hours in on itself. The Steward has always watched humanity even though they are not aware of him or his abilities. When something catastrophic happens he folds time to try and help humanity avoid the mistakes that got them there in the first place. As no one is aware that the time folds happen, no one truly knows the Steward exists.
In the new series, Days Missing: Kestus, we are introduced to a new character, Kestus (hence the title), that was only hinted at in the very end of the first series. Like the Steward, Kestus seems to be immortal, but has not shown signs of the ability to fold time… yet. She can remember all of the days that the Steward has folded, so if she does a little research, Kestus can actually find out where the Steward is going to be. In the end, the main underlying difference between the Steward and Kestus is that while the Steward is trying to save humanity from its mistakes, Kestus is trying to turn mankind against itself as she sees no use for us ‘hairless apes.’
SPOILER ALERT! Issue # 4, entitled January 1st 2000, starts out in Time Square on New Year’s Eve. Everyone is waiting for the ball to drop, but at the end of the countdown there is an all out power failure. Y2K has hit! Of course, everyone panics and the city is in riot. The Steward races towards the tallest building he can find, one of the World Trade Center towers, and heads to the roof to assess the damage. On the roof he finds some kind of explosive device rigged up to one of the antennas and tries to get a closer look. It explodes and knocks him unconscious. As he wakes up hours later he sees that the riots are still raging and New York is burning to the ground.
“This is not supposed to happen,” the Steward says as he fold time in on itself, only to find Kestus waiting for him on the roof. She informs him that she is now trying to help humanity from itself and that the “Y2K” was planned by terrorists to feed on peoples fear. She also explains that the bomb attached to the antenna is one of many other low yield explosives with EMP generators set to take down the east coast at the stroke of midnight. In addition, she reveals that she is working with “people” and actually calls someone named “Jenny” to help her defuse the bomb. The Steward is still skeptical about her wanting to help, but goes along with her. While she is introducing him to her “think tank,” they inform her that they know who the terrorist is – an old government scientist with a really big chip on his shoulder.
Steward and Kestus travel to the angry scientist’s house to confront him. He tells them that he is sick of humanity and thinks the world would be a lot better off with a little less civilization. The scientist gets the drop on the two of them by using a sonic disrupter that he invented for the government. They wake up with 30 seconds to go before midnight. The Steward then crawls towards the man telling him he has to stop this or else and evil scientist guy laughs thinking that this man groveling on the floor can do nothing to him. The Steward grabs his ankle and opens a space-time pocket big enough for both him and the scientist to move into. The Steward returns, but the scientists disappears into nothingness. Whew! Now we can see that New Year’s Eve is safe and the Steward and Kestus kissing at midnight; end of issue.
As I mentioned before, I love this book. The writing by Phil Hester has a feel of a Warren Ellis mixed with J. Michael Straczynski. And if you love Sci-Fi, this book is for you! The original series is out in a hardcover collection and you should still be able to pick up issues 1-4 of Kestus at your local comic shop. Check it out!